Sanyo HD1000:Xacti DMX-HD1000

Posted on 2008-02-20 08:19:00 | by: D.M | 18 Comments
Tags: SANYO, XACTI, SDHC, SD, H.264, CAMERA, VIDEO, HD1000

Product Name: Sanyo HD1000
Company: Sanyo

Xacti DMX-HD1000

With the HD1000, Sanyo finally takes the Xacti range to the next level! Even though the dimensions have increased, it remains a compact and very practical product. Now let's see if it's worth your money.

Hands on
Very close to what your "average" Xacti looks like, the HD1000 will simply require bigger pockets. The weight excess isn't a handicap as it provides additional stability. All in all it's very good even though we've now come pretty far from the discretion of a CG65.

Video
Big boost in quality here as you would expect thanks to the High Definition, Sanyo's HD1000 can now proudly compete with big names such as the Panasonic SD9 and the Victor (JVC) HD6. The image is very clean, and the brightness is pretty high (from F1.8 in wide to F2.5 in max zoom !).

Modles 720p and 1080i are available, but you may want to pick the Progressive over the Interlaced for various reasons. First off the 720p is more than enough and gives you the opportunity to do more than just web videos. Then comes the quality, better and lighter in gigabytes, the quality on HDTV is clearly superior with Progressive than Interlaced so... To all future owners, I strongly recommend 720 over 1080.

If you want to go really wide, the only choice is the optionnal VCP-L07WEX and that's quite a shame. I personally don't get why Sanyo (and others) don't sell their products with the wide angle because the super-zooms on HD camcorders are almost impossible to use unless you have a tripod...

Same can be said about the AutoFocus, one of the main weaknesses of the HD1000... Oh yeah, in case I didn't convince you and you still want to use the 1080i function, beware that it requires a special codec which was on previous versions of Quicktime but not in the recent ones! You'll find yourself jumping from one software to another with various codecs ... It really is about time for all to find a main codec to simplify things for everybody on this!

Photo
Big surprise there! The quality is lower than on the HD700. Did I hear you say strange? Indeed... Moreover the HD1000 shoots natively 2288x1712 or 2496x1408 while the HD700 does 3072x2304 (4MPx versus 7.1MPx). No worries though, this is a camera recorder... Althought it's still a bit disappointing to see that the manufacturers haven't yet found a way to optimize digicams and camcorders on this particular point. On a side note, the HD1000 lets you take snapshots while recording without interruption!

Plus:
- visual quality
- small and practical
- HD quality at 12 MBPS
- 720p and not only 1080i
- potential (more than just web videos)

Minus:
- Image stabilizer tends to struggle…
- 10x zoom
- AutoFocus
- 1080i codec

Conclusion:
The HD1000 is a real HD camcorder in the palm of your hand. The 720p 12MBps videos offers great quality and doesn't suffer much from camera jerks. The system is quick and you can start recording in the blink of an eye, a great possibility is the ability to take screenshoots while recording.

Now the downsides... The 1080i codec and image stabilizer need to be worked on, while I would suggest removing the 10x zoom and replacing it with a wide angle.

All in all the Xacti DMC-HD1000 is a nice compact HD camera recorder with its fair share of ups and downs, it proves that Sanyo is heading in the right direction and that there's still is room for improvements!

Here are a few video tests I did, converted into .wmv so they should run smoothly on most machines:

Download a .zip files with 720p video tests (255Mb)
Download a .zip files with 1080i video tests (220Mb)

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Posted on Wed Feb 20, 10:27 by fractalhorizon, Coder Monkey, Australia
Home Page:
Excellent review!

I really do wonder why camcoder manufacturers make virtually useless long zooms that can't really be used in handheld camcorders anyway instead of a wide-angle that everyone wants.

A few comments:

Firmware update is now available that fixed some problems with EIS and adds rotational shake compensation!

Posted on Wed Feb 20, 10:29 by fractalhorizon, Coder Monkey, Australia
Home Page:
Also, codec is definitely not a problem. Either download and install a copy of an open source codec from here:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23875/avc1decoder
or download Quicktime 7.1.6 from apple and copy the working H.264 codec from there. Either one works just fine in all resolutions.

Why, OH WHY, are the samples in the .WMV format? Why use a brain-dead proprietary format over an ISO standard one? I mean, not only are the samples now confined to only one operating system, but it makes it impossibel for us to judge the quality of the original footage (it has been re-compressed), or to test if the files that come out of this wonderful little camera will work with our video editing software!

Luckily, Sanyo has a page with a few sample videos on it, you can get them from here:
http://www.sanyo-dsc.com/products/lineup/dmx_hd1000/feature/02/index.html

Posted on Thu Feb 21, 01:29 by David_M, Photographe/Caméraman, Tokyo
Home Page: http://www.lejapon.fr/blog/
fractalhorizon -> Thanx for informations about codec.
I have put .wmv for people how don't have Quick Time... off course you can see original (same name but .mp4)

Posted on Mon Feb 25, 11:47 by Jam
Home Page:
I just think in case I buy it in Akihabara Japan, can I be able to get an English-Menu Version of HD1000?

Posted on Tue Feb 26, 11:50 by BigMacky, Malaysia
Home Page: http://bigmacky.wordpress.com/
I bought one from Akihabara few weeks back. No english menu. Only Japanese. Unlike other gadgets like cameras, there's no option to switch to english interface. But its not a problem at all. Menu has icons which you can relate to easily. So far, I have been very happy with the image quality. As expected, indoors/low light recording is a little noisy BUT outdoors are sharp and comparable to Blu-ray movies out there. Get it.

Posted on Sun Mar 09, 04:32 by Dan, Technology Reviewer, Minneapolis, MN
Home Page: http://danstechreviews.com
What's the artist/song info on the first video, I like it!

Posted on Sat Mar 15, 04:49 by Juuso, researcher, Helsinki, Finland
Home Page:
But the codec seems to be a problem for Windows and especially for Vista. VLC (VideoLan player) plays nicely 720p on XP and Vista.
Windows media player manages (with ffdshow and haali splitter ) to show the 1080i video but audio synchronisation is completely lost (audio runs about 20% faster).

Any good suggestions+
Juuso

Posted on Sat Mar 22, 12:05 by DrSlump
Home Page:
Hi guys, what about 32 or 16Gb SDHC cards?
Is that camera worth the buy?

Posted on Tue Apr 22, 12:22 by ksr
Home Page:
HD1000 can handle only upto 8GB SDHC.

Posted on Sat May 03, 04:08 by cysam
Home Page:
hi - that's not entirely true ksr.

I just got the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1000 from Amazon.com in the US and also bought a Transcend 16GB SDHC (Class 6) card and it works fine in the camera - even when formatted by the camera itself. It's awesome and was pretty cheap at $70 - certainly worth the buy for me.

Posted on Tue May 06, 04:28 by dexxx, Sdudent, Ukraine, Kiev
Home Page: http://escort-models.kiev.ua/en-index.html
Fantastic!!

Posted on Thu May 29, 11:29 by altea, usa
Home Page:
I can't find the HD1000 720p in Amazon,I have to buy the HD700 if I want progressive?
Or the HD1000 has a progressive mode to record??????

Posted on Sun Jun 08, 03:33 by xore
Home Page:
DrSlump, ksr
HD1000 don't have a maximum car limit, I've got an 16GB on it, and it runs fine!

Posted on Sun Jun 08, 10:18 by GerBraschi, Retired, Iguassu Falls BRASIL
Home Page:
Sanyo has just launch the model HD1010 that solves almost all problems reported on old model HD1000.
See:
http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-16152-New+Xacti+HD1010+Hands+On%21+Not+Very+Revolutionary%E2%80%A6.html

Posted on Fri Jun 13, 01:30 by mazikaty
Home Page: http://www.xlions.com
HD1000 don't have a maximum car limit, I've got an 16GB on it, and it runs fine!

Posted on Wed Jul 16, 07:16 by olya, Study, London
Home Page: http://cinemafeed.info
Excellent review!

Posted on Sun Sep 07, 01:56 by Tired
Home Page: http://www.buy-pillsonline.com
small and compact.

Posted on Fri Oct 17, 05:31 by SOL
Home Page:
if i go work in Japan, can i also drive an R8?

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